Dreamspinners
by LilacFree
Summary: Peri must confront the basis of an old nightmare, with the help of the Fifth Doctor. Set in the continuity of the Big Finish audios with Erimem, but can be read without being familiar with those stories.


This was done for a challenge request, and explores the history behind the scene in 'Planet of Fire' where Peri has a bad dream about her stepfather. Erimem is from ancient Egypt, and she and Peri are together companions of the Fifth Doctor in several Big Finish audios. This is set shortly after Erimem's joining the TARDIS crew. In Erimem's inaugural story, Peri suffers a mental invasion by alien parasites.

* * *

"Your hair looks pretty like that," Peri opined.

Erimem smiled and gently fingered the very short dark hair that capped her shapely skull. "Pretty, maybe, but a little boring. I used to have wigs for all occasions. They did itch, though, and it was not seemly for Pharaoh to scratch herself."

"I bet Pharaoh scratched when Pharaoh was a man."

"You're right. Another instance of male privilege. Now the Doctor… you and he… I know we spoke of this before, but you have never slept with him?"

Peri blushed slightly. "No, it's not the sort of thing that comes up with him. Er. I mean, he doesn't flirt, or show much awareness of the male-female thing." Erimem meant no offense, Peri knew, it was a natural question to ask of a man and woman traveling together, but right now she just wanted out of this conversation. "Where's your cat?"

"The last time I saw him, he was sleeping on the altar—pardon, I mean the console."

"A perfectly understandable mistake. Let's go find him."

o

o

Peri twisted restlessly on her bed. She liked the simple little brass frame with the friendly round knobs on the posts. It was old fashioned and cozy and usually she fell asleep right away. But not tonight: tonight she felt desperately weary yet couldn't keep her eyes closed.

Why did people always have to ask that? They were traveling companions, friends, nothing more. She didn't want anything more from the Doctor; she liked him fine as he was. He was weird and dangerous and at the same time safe and comfortable. Must be the reassuring effect of the celery on his lapel.

She fell asleep at last with her face down in the pillow and her nose mashed.

o

_Dark coffin-like closet. Air stuffy with cedar and camphor and stale wool. Her face masked with a glutinous mix of tears and snot. Let me out. Please! I'll be good._

o

Peri struggled free of her sheets and sat up, panting. Then her stomach cramped and she dashed to her bathroom, vomiting until her head spun. Mechanically she erased the signs of illness as if she'd done it a hundred times. Wash the face, brush the teeth, stagger back to bed and sleep away the rawness in the throat.

She slept late the next morning and got up feeling fine. She had woken up in the night and been sick. Possibly something she ate in Egypt had disagreed with her stomach. Peri made a big pot of peppermint tea and had a cup with the Doctor and Erimem.

"So where have you brought us, Doctor?"

"It's a quiet little world called Mekhanteram. It's an advanced society but their tech is very low key. I thought Erimem might find it an excellent introduction to the universe. They're supremely civilized people. I've only visited once before."

"Was the planet almost destroyed?" Peri asked demurely.

"Of course not. I decoyed the Cybermen away…" the Doctor trailed off, looking suspiciously at Peri. She poured herself more peppermint tea.

"So you should be popular there?"

"I hate to raise a fuss, no need for that. This is a personal visit, not business. Mekhanteram is a health resort, not only for body but also for mind and spirit. They even cater to your dreams—they call themselves 'Dreamspinners'."

Erimem looked to the Doctor. "Dreamspinners? Do they interpret your dreams? I had such men at my court."

"No, they shape your dreams. It's a technique of low-level telepathic interaction where they seed your mind with specific prompts from which the dream images grow. Their usual function is to help people dream about things that make them happy when they are emotionally distressed." The Doctor cleared his throat, "That's the short version; this culture has a long tradition of voluntary shared trance dating back to—"

"—I think I'm happy with the short version, Doctor. How about you, Erimem?"

"I think I should like to visit these Dreamspinners. Doctor, Peri?"

"Oh, no, not my sort of thing. I plan to look up an old friend while you and Erimem enjoy the amenities. Then we can meet again for the evening meal."

"It sounds so peaceful," Peri said, not entirely willing to trust that her immediate future for once was not going to include running for her life.

"It is peaceful!" the Doctor protested, looking a little hurt. "If you don't want to go—"

"But we do," Erimem said firmly. "Thank you, Doctor, for thinking of our well-being. But about these dream interpreters—they do not foretell the future?"

"They do not believe that dreams predict the future but are born of a person's past experience and current preoccupations. The interpretation is to understand how the nature of the dreamer is revealed through dreams."

"But is not the future built from the past? To borrow your metaphor, the past is the seed to the growth of the future."

"Speaking as a botanist and in defense of the horticultural metaphor, isn't the point to plant the seeds you want to live with?"

"Well said, Peri. Let's get to it, shall we?" They cleared breakfast away and headed out.

Civilized seemed to equate with dull. Everyone was so mellow that Peri kept feeling tempted to scream just to wake an echo. The planet was arid and the local architecture favored thick stone walls with windows arranged to catch the prevailing breeze. Peri and Erimem had adopted the local garb: softly draped fabrics woven with optic fibers so that the wearer could customize the colors to personal taste. The two girls had spent at least an hour keying designs on themselves and each other. The Doctor had stuck to his boring old cricket whites and gone off to spend time with his friend.

The place did remind Peri of Egypt, only an Egypt flung into the future and sanitized to an inch of its life. She'd never seen anywhere so clean, and it was as quiet as a church. Indeed, Peri's mother had been a Baptist and the church that they'd attended had been livelier than this. The people, to all appearances human except for purplish tones in their skin, never raised their voices or moved faster than a walking pace.

The Dreamspinners did their work in a building that looked to both Peri and Erimem like some kind of temple. It was a circle with the roof slanting upwards towards the center, but the center was open. Inside, long draperies reached from roof to floor and cut the area into pie slices.

Peri tried not to think about how it looked like the roof was being supported only by the drapes. The Doctor had explained that everything around them was actually the product of sophisticated technology, deliberately kept low key.

The overall effect was quite beautiful, all light and air and soft billows of white.

Peri and Erimem were shown to separate couches in adjoining compartments and offered masks of something that resembled papier-mâché but almost certainly was not. There were no eyeholes, but an eye was drawn in the center just above the brow line.

A slim young man who was very distinctly lavender came to stand by Peri's couch. "What dream will you choose today? Say it and we will sing it for you."

"You sing?"

"A chant that helps you find the place of dreaming within your mind."

Peri swung her heels against the couch. "Oh… could you make me dream of a garden?" A wild green space was just what this dry planet was missing.

"It shall be done. Lie down and be comfortable. Close your physical eyes and open your mind's eye."

Peri lay back and put on her mask. It sat on her face so lightly she could barely feel it. With her eyes closed, she received no more light than she might if she'd placed her hand over her eyes. Voices began to chant, interspersed with chimes.

o

Green. Peri stood in the flower-starred grass and looked up at the sun shining through leaves. Sometimes she thought she could actually see the process of photosynthesis taking place. She was leaning back against a tree

_it was not a tree_

and the air smelled

_like cedar._

Cedar trees had needles, not leaves. Peri turned around and looked. It was not a tree at all, but a door.

She didn't open the door. It was a dream. She didn't have to open the door.

_She opened the door and was inside in darkness closed IN held DOWN can't BREATHE_

o

Peri woke screaming. She threw the mask aside. Her scream still rang in her ears and all she saw was white.

A chime sounded. She drew in a sharp breath and realized she'd been holding it in. Her racing pulse began to slow. Attendants came and fanned her; she could smell some kind of herbal scent on the air. The young lavender dream counselor hovered at the foot of the bed. His eyes were wide and terrified.

"Do you live?" he whispered.

"Huh? Of course I do."

"We were afraid you might have suffered a death of the mind."

All through the building, curtains were being pulled aside and people were drifting towards the exit. Peri looked around dazedly for Erimem.

"Where's Erimem? My friend, I came in with her."

The lavender man glanced at the curtain of the adjoining space. Peri jumped down and pushed the curtain aside. Erimem still lay on her pallet, the mask on her face. Two attendants were carefully fanning her while a third misted water on the air. Peri could smell a strong whiff of some variety of mint. A stimulant.

Peri reached out to touch Erimem's shoulder, but the attendant blocked her. "Do not touch her. They are trying to lead her from her dream."

"Why don't you just wake her up?"

"We tried," came the unhappy answer.

"Look, I'm going to go get my other friend. He's a very wise man; he'll help her. I'll be back soon, I promise." The man was trying to block her again but he didn't seem to want to touch her.

'You should not leave," he tried to tell her, but Peri was having none of that. She dodged around him and towards the exit. If this had been a football field there would have been people chasing her or trying to tackle her. It was more like running an obstacle course consisting of a few doors and a handful of people feebly asking her to come back.

"I'll be back soon," she called, "With the Doctor!" They had dropped him off on the way to the Dreamspinner session, at the home of Sarumnee, a local elder and retired leader of the planet. It was about a mile away. The walk from Sarumnee's home had been pleasant, but the run back left Peri winded and sweaty. She'd turned her ankle and she stumbled into the Doctor's presence looking not at all like someone who'd had a refreshing day at the spa.

"Oh, Doctor, please come at once. Erimem won't wake up."

"Sit down and tell me what happened, Peri. Let me check your ankle, it looks puffy and you're limping."

Peri collapsed into a seat. Sarumnee brought a wrap and an ointment that the Doctor applied to her ankle. The ointment worked almost immediately, dissolving the pain and reducing the swelling. "I was dreaming and it turned into a nightmare. I woke up screaming; I woke everyone up except Erimem. They were trying to revive her when I left, they seemed very upset."

"What is this beast of the night?" Sarumnee looked bewildered, an expression that made him look like a raisin, as his skin was deep purple and very wrinkled.

"No, nightmare."

"She means her dream was unpleasant, Sarumnee."

"But how is that possible? Could you please explain this metaphor?"

"It doesn't really refer to an animal. Peri's native language derives it from an archaic word for an evil spirit that supposedly sits on a sleeper's chest and makes them feel as if they were suffocating."

That was news to Peri, and an all too vivid image. Sudden chills seized her body with shudders.

"Why, Peri, you're as white as a sheet! I didn't hurt your ankle, did I?" The Doctor stood up and quickly pulled off his coat to wrap it around her. She gratefully huddled into a shelter that felt as much psychological as it did physical.

"No, you just gave me the willies with that nightmare thing. I'd never heard where it came from before."

"Can you walk all right?" The Doctor looked keenly into Peri's face; she was still pale. "Maybe you'd better stay here."

"No, I want to go with you. I told them I'd be right back."

"Your friend will be perfectly safe with the Dreamspinners," Sarumnee tried to reassure her, but Peri figured, if Erimem was perfectly safe then she'd be awake.

The Doctor insisted on Peri keeping on his coat for now. They walked quickly back towards the Dreamspinners' hall.

Where the streets had been pleasantly quiet when the TARDIS' crew had first arrived, now they were uncomfortably hushed. Their quick footsteps sounded loud in comparison to the pace of the local people, like kids having a popgun fight.

Down the street two women suddenly turned on each other, raising their voices in a row. The fight had the impact of an earthquake. The Doctor and Peri and everyone else stopped where they were and stared in the direction of the raised voices; those in nearby homes came to their windows and doors and looked out.

One woman slapped the other and a gasp rose from all those who watched. After that the whole neighborhood was as silent as a tomb for about ten seconds. The slapper broke the silence by starting to cry; the slappee put her arm around the crying woman and led her away. The susurrus of daily life started again; but this time with eddies of disturbance. People put their heads together and whispered and it was strange how their lowered voices somehow made more noise than if they spoke normally.

"That was odd," Peri remarked. The Doctor shook his head.

"It was unprecedented. People here do not quarrel. They have reasoned disagreements. That was as shocking as an axe murder in a nursery, if not more so. Earth being what it is, Peri, there is scarcely anywhere where violence may not occur. There has not been a murder on this planet for longer than the length of human history in your native era."

In the Dreamspinners' hall, a choir had gathered around Erimem's pallet. Attendants were dancing around her. Erimem was not still. Her head moved from side to side, Peri could see sweat on her brow although the temperature was mild.

"What are they doing?" Peri's voice sounded like a shout, for at the first syllable the whole group fell silent.

Erimem moaned.

The chief attendant, an older woman with a smooth lilac complexion, came to speak to them. "This girl must be quarantined before her contagion spreads." She was looking at Peri.

"Contagion? I had a bad dream!"

"Your dream has entrapped your friend; and already I have heard of disturbances beyond these walls."

"But dreams aren't contagious!" Peri looked to the Doctor to defend her.

"Here they may be. These people live in psychic communion, Peri. It is strange, though, that your dreams would be able to spread since you are not a telepath." The Doctor shoved his hands into his pockets and gazed pensively at Erimem.

"Come sit beside your friend. You can do her no more harm." Peri's shoulders sagged as the Doctor made no move to stop them, and she let them lead her over to Erimem's pallet. She sat glumly on the edge with her eyes on the Doctor.

"Would you allow me to examine Erimem?" the Doctor asked in that way of his that was less a request than a polite statement of his intent to do as he thought best.

"Of course. We would welcome assistance, Doctor. I am Naramilu, the senior Dreamspinner."

"My people have our own set of telepathic abilities. I may be able to reach Erimem where you could not," the Doctor said diplomatically. He went to Erimem's head and removed the mask before gently cradling her skull between his hands. Peri took the mask from him and sat fiddling with it while he worked on their friend.

A dream was usually a fleeting thing. Erimem's mind flared with images and the Doctor reached for the strongest one.

o

The Nile mud sucked at his feet, slithered between his toes and the water was as heavy as molten lead in his kilt. Something brushed against his leg, huge, rasping. Crocodile.

C sawteeth R swiftlunge O armorhide C lashingtail O vicegrip D deathroll I drowning L dying E

A dagger flashed in its own light and dazzled his eyes.

He was in the desert. The sun beat down like a hammer and the air was dry in his mouth and lungs with the faint stale smell of the ghost of water. It stripped the strength from his limbs and pressed him to the ground. The sweat sprang from his skin and evaporated, as precious and necessary as blood. He could not draw a full breath. He was staked out in the sun.

The deadly light was blotted out by a storm. It blew at him, covered him, and erased him layer by layer with a millions of flecks of sand. It was more than his breath; it was his existence, all-enveloping breath-stealing wind.

No wind. Darkness.

"Doctor?"

"Erimem. Where are we?"

"I shouldn't have come into the tomb. We are trapped. The air is running out… we are doomed, Doctor."

"Erimem, listen carefully. You're trapped in a dream. Remember the Dreamspinners?"

Her mind heaved around him. A crack opened in the ceiling and let in a ray of light and he saw her, dusty and afraid. The air stirred up the faint scents of cedar and myrrh. "I'm still dreaming?"

"Yes. Climb towards the light, Erimem."

He heard her hands scrabble at stone and an ominous creaking sound. "It's a trap! Run--"

A giant slab of rock crashed down blotting out Erimem's scream.

o

The Doctor pushed Erimem into another image and parted their minds. He shook off the images of death and deception and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"You're right, Naramilu. Somehow Peri's dream is in Erimem's head. The imagery is different, but I recognize what Peri described to me. The sensation of being crushed, the smell of cedar and camphor. Fear and flight and capture."

"Oh," Peri said in a small voice. "Now what? Why doesn't she wake up?"

"I don't know, Peri. But I think the answer lies in your head and not hers." The Doctor looked at her sternly and she hugged herself under that cool blue gaze. She was still wearing his buff cricket coat.

"What do I have to do?"

"Go back into the dream. Have you had this nightmare before?"

"Yes. I had it last night. When you explained about the word 'nightmare' it came back to me. It was so awful I woke up sick to my stomach. It's an old dream." Peri hunched in on herself, utterly miserable.

"It's not so unusual to have a recurring nightmare, Peri."

"I know. It's only…it doesn't matter. It's the only way to help Erimem, right? Just try to make it quick." Peri snuffled and blinked back tears. She was too old to let this stupid dream affect her so!

"Lie down, then." Peri swung her legs up onto the pallet and lay down beside Erimem. She took her friend's hand and squeezed it reassuringly, for herself as well. She looked up at the Doctor and his smile was kind even upside down. "Good girl. Naramilu, if you will have your people help induce sleep in Peri, we will begin."

A silvery bell rang and Peri's eyelids sagged. The last thing she saw was the light shining through the Doctor's fair hair like a halo as he leaned over her.

o

The loose scree of the ravines of the planet Sarn shifted treacherously under her feet. She was so hot and the air was so dry and she knew this was not Earth and she was all alone. So afraid. Her arm still ached where the Master's grip had pinioned her. But he was really Kamelion who kept looking like Howard.

Where had that door come from? She snatched at the handle and the darkness reached out and sucked her inside.

_She couldn't scream, her mouth was full of wool; she couldn't break free of the soft hot tangle of heavy coats. She couldn't breathe though the smell of old cedar and mothballs tickled her nose. She dropped to the floor and scrabbled at the thin line of light at the bottom of the door._

_"Let me out! Please, I'll be good! Don't leave me in here," she sobbed and snuffled until her face was wet and sticky, a smear of snot and dust._

_Hands where they shouldn't be. A sick hot sweaty feeling like her whole body was crying._

_"Of course you will. Show me what a good girl you are, Perpugilliam."_

o

Peri came up fighting and flailing. "No, oh, God, NO! Don't!" She dived off the pallet and curled up on the floor, sobbing. The Doctor knelt beside her, barely able to hold back rage with pity. He was going to have to speak when each word might hurt her more.

"Peri… you're awake now. Let go of the memory."

She put her hands over her face. "You don't understand. It wasn't real."

"The underlying cause of the nightmare—"

"No. It didn't happen. It NEVER happened. I made it up. I lied about it. Howard never did that to me. Mom said so." Peri's voice went from near scream to a whimper, and she buried her head in her arms at the end and rocked back and forth. "...bad girl, bad girl…" she whispered.

"Leave us!" The Doctor's voice held a snap of command that was instantly obeyed. All the Dreamspinners departed leaving him alone with Peri and Erimem.

"Peri." His voice broke. "Peri, Perpugilliam Brown… you are not a liar. It happened. I'm so sorry. The parasites who invaded your mind displaced your mentality and stirred up this memory that you have denied for so long. That's why the nightmare came back. The truth will out, Peri."

"My mother would not lie to me!" Peri's voice was raw, holding on to the belief with all her heart.

"You know it happens, Peri. You're too intelligent not to know what dreadful things happen to the children of your world. All too often, at the hands of those who should protect them." The Doctor held his voice steady with all the self-control he owned. He wanted to give voice to his anger; he wanted to break the whole cruel world. The implacable anger of a Time Lord built up in him like a glacier preparing to calve.

"That's why Erimem can't free herself from the dream. You have convinced yourself that there's no truth to it. Peri, if you don't face this, if you don't accept this, I don't know how we'll ever wake her up. This memory is something like a cancer of the mind. It has infected the psychic union of the entire community. The best analogy I can offer is of a song that you hear and it gets stuck in your head. Ideas spread, Peri."

Peri lifted her head. "If I go back and we free Erimem, that proves it's true?"

"Yes. Erimem will awaken, and the disturbance her nightmare is causing in the local mind will subside. Yes, it is proof."

The Doctor voice was sorrowful, but his emotions were under control and his face was calm: calm sorrow, calm pity, and calm anger.

_He puts my welfare and Erimem's before his own_.

Peri gasped and flung herself on him, buried her face in his fine linen shirt and clung to his silly question marked braces. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against his two hearts.

Her hot tears soaked through his shirt. "Please. Let's do it now, quickly. I can't bear much more of this."

The Doctor kissed the top of her head and picked her up like a child. He set her on the pallet, and closed the front of his jacket around her. One hand came to rest on the crown of her head, the other on Erimem's.

Together they battled the crocodile and solved the Sphinx's riddle. They evaded the tomb traps. Together, they led Erimem out into the bright sun and blue sky of Egypt. Pure sunlight bathed them.

Pure sunlight bathed them. Peri opened her eyes. She was too tired to be hurt right now. Like taking a wound: the numbness of shock would give way to the pain. "I never want to see them again, Doctor. Even if I leave you, I'm not going back."

Erimem silently hugged her and the two girls clung together. This crime was known in ancient Egypt as well as 20th century America. The Doctor watched them together. His anger was undimmed, but they gave him comfort. He loved Earth, but he knew such abominations took place there. The simple human affection between the two girls over-balanced parental betrayal in the scales of Ma'at.

When Peri sat up, she saw Naramilu was standing at the end of the pallet. "I'm sorry--"

Naramilu lifted a hand to forestall her. "You have no reason to apologize. It is we who have forgotten that those who have troubles are not the cause of those troubles. Otherwise we might have healed you ourselves. I do not know what we could have done without the Doctor. If our ignorance caused you further pain, it is we who must apologize."

Peri rubbed her chest. She felt awful in most ways, but also lighter. It was like the time she'd had a high fever. When it had broken, her body had ached, but she also felt free of the sickness. No wonder she had woke up vomiting so many times. Her body had protested the only way it could.

"I think we're square. Doctor, can we go home now, to the TARDIS?"

The Doctor helped her and Erimem to their feet. "Let's go home."

o

Epilogue

Time Lords have long memories and they are persistent when following a goal. It took a quite a gap of time for the Doctor to get the TARDIS to the right era and slip away when Peri was sleeping (Erimem having since parted ways with them.)

With the aid of the TARDIS' data banks he had tracked the career of Howard Foster. He found both the professor and his wife at home. He did not come as a guest and he did not bring mercy with him. Foster opened the door and his recognition of the Doctor faltered before the Time Lord's icy gaze. He simply stumbled backwards until they were both in the living room with his wife.

"Howard, who—"

"Silence."

Silence fell. The Master might pride himself on his ability to control minds, but he wanted obedience. The Doctor knew humans better than his renegade counterpart had ever troubled himself to learn.

He could have disassembled their minds. Right then he wanted to do it. His anger raged against the restrictions he put on it as a nuclear reactor beat at the walls of its containing chamber.

"I know what you did to Peri. You will not do this to another child. You will not attempt to contact Peri. Wherever you go, you will leave word so that she can find you if she ever wishes to. If she comes home and confronts you, you will turn yourselves over to the police and confess everything. You will do anything she wants you to do." He bound his commands into their minds like steel bars caging their wills.

The Doctor could feel both their awareness and their denial of their guilt. That they could feel both at once brought a growl to his throat of sheer frustration. He knew perfectly well (he told himself) that they were products of their culture and scarcely more than primitives. It might be a reason, but it was no excuse. To kill them would be self-indulgence. It would not spare Peri one iota of pain.

The Doctor turned on his heel and left, not bothering to close doors behind him. The two humans were dead to him.

He did not think that Peri would ever return.

* * *

End 


End file.
